Post navigation

Regionalisation by Greed and Incompetence: Councils

Regionalism and elected Mayors have mainly been ignored by we the people. It bores us, we think it’s about jobs for the boys and girls.

So much so that the politicians have stopped asking us, save through bland and ill organised consultations. So useless that recently a judge agreed there were shortcomings with the way Chesterfield residents were consulted about the Sheffield City Region deal. https://goo.gl/jbzKG2

An article here in Rothpol some months before the Judge’s ruling showed how poor consultation had been throughout the proposed City Region. The same judgement could apply to every town, to every Council…but only Derbyshire bothered taking the matter to Court.

In September 2015 Rotherham Council Leader Chris Read signed us up for the Sheffield City Region and a new Mayor. In democratic style, the opinions of the people were sought 3 months later.

In the form of an online questionnaire; completed by only 245 people out of an election population of circa 1,200,000. A paper summarising the results didn’t even say whether a majority were for or against it, but without irony noted how few young people responded.

Were the politicians contrite at their failure to deliver a decent consultation process, and apologise when the Judge pointed it out? No, of course not https://goo.gl/49nRmP

S0 why do local Labour Politicians want the City Region? For them, once they chuck out any remaining political principles about colluding with Tories in the demise of public services, it’s a no brainer

* More jobs and better career paths for them.

* With a likely low turnout, a probable victory when such have been in short supply of late for Labour.

Why does the Tory Government want Regions?

*It’s a long term project to enable cuts in to Council services. By devolving decision making, they also devolve responsibility. Meaning when they the Government cut budgets they can pass on blame for service reductions on these new regional bodies, run by Labour.

Ignore the offers of loads of extra cash from the Tories, that cheque is still to be written and for every £1 given I think £3 will be taken away.

So what’s in it for us, the public?

*The thing we always wanted for Christmas, another tier of local Government.

* A Mayor, to add to the Labour Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) who has made such a difference to the daily lives of……er, his chums. Remember the PCC controversially appointing Sioned-Mair Richards, wife of his election agent Howard Knight, to a £31,000 job in his team? https://goo.gl/BRK6p0

In Rotherham Labour have stopped even trying to sell the City Region idea to the public, we are irrelevant.

Councillors, take note Chris Read, don’t even bother speaking to their party members on the issue.

Ironically many would like to see some regionalisation of government, there are things that could be better commissioned, planned and delivered by cooperation between Councils. We could also reduce the number of Ward Councillors, to help meet the costs.

However, there is no unified plan here, no vision for delivering better services…just another tier of government and some shabby motivations.

7 thoughts on “Regionalisation by Greed and Incompetence: Councils”

The city region is about what is best for Sheffield, take the so called Rotherham sites and policies plans, the housing programme they have planned is not for local people it is for sheffield. I have attended several meetings of the joke that is the consultation with Rotherham council planning, the government inspector, relevant parish councils and the vultures representing the developers. It is obvious at these meetings that the ones running the show are the vultures. I was at one meeting where an officer from Sheffield city council was there who told us point blank that their green belt was sacrosanct they would not be building on it. Yet they want to take whole swathes of it in Dinnington and elsewhere. He also said they were only building apartments for young business people, not family homes, those are to be built in our area. Dinnington, if we don’t fight it, will become a commuter hub for Sheffield. They want to take a whole tract of prime agricultural land at Todwick along the A57 for an industrial estate, again not for our benefit but for Sheffield. The change in the route of HS2 is for the benefit of Sheffield, and the cowards that are the Labour Party in Rotherham council aquiese to every proposal. The two Dinnington Labour councillors have consistently voted for the decimation of our town. The question we should all ask is, who is going to hold the purse strings for the city region, its for damn sure it won’t be Rotherham.

The worst thing for Dinnington and Anston was being moved from the old rural district to Rotherham borough. Service quality went down and costs in real term went up and the creation of so many over paid non jobs. The Sheffield region will be an acceleration of the takeover by Rotherham borough, worse services, higher costs and even more non jobs. Personally I would like to see Anston, Dinnington, Kiveton and Wales go it along again and pay for services that benefit us. I am fed up of us subsidising other areas of Rotherham while our own services are cut.

It is named Sheffield City Region for a very good reason: Sheffield City Council has more money, more influence and more clout than Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster.
The SCR is now a political construct to expand the powers of the Labour party in South Yorkshire which will ignore people like Chris Read-who found an extra £440,000 to prop up the Magna complex but who can’t find the money nor the expertise to do what Bassetlaw District Councl did. Challenge the make up and decisions of the SCR.

Be under no illusions; Sheffield CC will make sure Rotherham councillors do as they are told.
No cooperation,no money.